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People living near the island of Utøya have launched a campaign to block a memorial planned to the victims of far-right extremist Anders Brievik, arguing that the winning proposal amounts to a "rape of nature".

More than 700 people have already joined the Facebook group "No to the approved memorial on Sørbråten" in anger at the artist's plans to create a "permanent scar" of the landscape by carving a three-and-a-half-meter wide slice out of the Sørbråten peninsular.

The Swedish artist Jonas Wahlberg at the end of last month won a competition to design a memorial for those killed by far-right extremist Anders Breivik on the island in 2011.

His proposal, 'Memory Wound', would see the tip of Sørbråten, the peninsular which juts out into the Tyrifjorden towards Utøya, severed from the lakeside, and the names of the dead then carved on the exposed surface of the new island.

Ole Morten Jensen, who created the Facebook group, said that those living nearby would be confronted with the monument every day.